Monthly Archives: January 2014

And of those 39 US-based biotech companies, five of them are from San Diego, highlighting the region’s growing importance as hub for the biotech and life science industries. According to a recently authored BIO article in the Union Tribune San Diego, there are several reasons at play for the strong public offerings – enactment of the JOBS Act, an eager investor market and increasing regulatory transparency resulting from PDUFA V. As powerful as the JOBS Read More >

This past weekend, Michaeleen Doucleff at NPR’s Shots blog shared a fascinating but disturbing map from the Council on Foreign Relations, How Vaccine Fears Fueled The Resurgence Of Preventable Diseases. The map covers 2008-2013 and shows outbreaks of measles, mumps, rubella, polio, whooping cough, and other diseases that are preventable with vaccines. As the article notes, we’ve seen a large increase in whooping cough cases here in the US. While the 24,000 cases seen in Read More >

The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a unique federal policy that has, just as its bipartisan supporters intended, spurred major domestic and international investment in US biofuels production and it is essential to maintaining a growing market for second generation biofuels. That growing market helps attract investment to advanced biofuel companies who are trying to expand their infrastructure, scale up their production line, and improve their technology foundation. Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent Read More >

The Company Snapshots have returned for our next One-on-One Partnering event, the BIO CEO & Investor Conference, taking place in New York City this February. The companies that will be profiled in these snapshots will all be presenting at the event, and we hope this provides the opportunity to learn more about them, and catch up on what’s new. What is your company’s lead product or technology? Conatus’s lead product is emricasan, a first-in-class oral Read More >

Earlier this week, The Hill’s Congress Blog posted an op-ed penned by Andrew von Eschenbach and Paul Howard entitled, “Innovation in medicine isn’t optional – it’s imperative” highlighting the importance of encouraging innovation and preserving incentives for drug development. The authors recommend increased cooperation and collaboration between industry, academia, and regulators, in addition to recognition by the federal government that ‘a vibrant life-sciences industry will generate higher national productivity, lower total health care costs, and Read More >